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12 Aug 2015: Any external audit requirements will be included in the terms and conditions of each award. External audits will be arranged by ROO and auditors may need to visit departments to check invoices and payroll information. ROO will contact departments to

2 Apr 2015: Expenditure charged to a specific donation must meet the conditions specified by the donor. Responsibility for ensuring that the terms of specific donations are available for reference and are adhered to rests with the Head of Department.

23 Jul 2015: A commitment is an agreement or a pledge to assume a financial obligation at a future date e.g. the funds that we are committing to spend with a supplier when we send them a purchase order. UFS is a commitment accounting system.

31 Mar 2015: Fixed assets within the University are split into three specific categories and presented differently in the financial statements. Equipment Purchased by departments in the normal course of business, including from research grants.

17 Aug 2015: All invoices for sales must be raised in UFS. They must be raised as soon as practically possible after the sale, and at most within one month of the transaction and comply with the VAT regulations. If use of another finance system is essential,

6 Aug 2015: Human blood and products for therapeutic purposes made of human blood, human (including foetal) organs or tissue for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes or medical research are exempt. Therefore no VAT is charge on the purchase and these purchases

6 Aug 2015: If we purchase something from a supplier in the UK who is not registered for VAT (normally because their turnover is too low), then they will not be able to charge the University VAT and hence the expenditure is entered as 'No UK VAT' on CUFS.

23 Jul 2015: The primary consideration when budgeting for a non-Chest activity is to ensure that expenditure does not exceed the funds available. Therefore, the best place to start when budgeting for a non-Chest activity is to calculate the income available.

23 Jul 2015: Budgets should be input to UFS on the same transaction codes to which actual expenditure will be coded, as far as possible, otherwise meaningful analysis of Actual versus Budget expenditure is jeopardised at institutional, School and University level

12 Aug 2015: Credit checks The credit control team within Research Accounting credit-check all new sponsors for credit worthiness where possible. Existing sponsors are monitored regularly.

5 Aug 2015: Suppliers that have been entered more than once onto the Supplier database are identified and deactivated by the Accounts Payable (AP) Team. Suppliers that the University does not wish to trade with in the future, for example, companies that have

5 Aug 2015: From April 2015, HMRC changed the rules as to how VAT should be accounted for on invoices with a prompt payment discount. Prior to the change, VAT would always be calculated on the discounted value irrespective of whether the discount was actually

1 Apr 2015: Calculate the cost of the activities of the trust over the forthcoming year. For salaries, do not forget to include on costs such as employer's NI and pension contributions, as well as the overhead charge.

7 Apr 2015: The GL is at the heart of CUFS, collating information from the sub-ledgers of all of the University's financial transactions. The GL is used for processing journals, account enquiries and running reports.

2 Apr 2015: Donations are not available for investment or spending until they have been received and credited to an income account in the relevant Department.

12 Aug 2015: Departments charge expenditure (excluding Staff costs, Pooled labour, Overheads and Non-direct costs) using UFS iProcurement and Accounts Payables (AP) modules. When charging expenditure in these modules you need to enter the award, project and task

20 Mar 2015: Budgetary control is financial jargon for managing income and expenditure. In practice it means regularly comparing actual income or expenditure to planned income or expenditure to identify whether corrective action is required.

2 Apr 2015: The procedures for authorisation of Trust Funds and Special Funds expenditure involve explicit approval by a Manager of the Fund and are set out in a separate chapter of the Financial Procedures Manual (Chapter 13 - Trust Funds).

12 Aug 2015: Research Grant expenditure will always be mapped across to a source of funds code MA**. The MA indicates research, the next letter indicating the sponsor type, and the last letter indicates the VAT Status. The sponsor type “letter” is used for

23 Jul 2015: A variance is the difference between actual and budgeted income and expenditure. Therefore, at the University, we only get variances in GL (General Ledger) on Chest funded activities. For all other sources of funds budgetary control will be

12 Aug 2015: The University Procurement Procedures must be followed for the purchase of all items of equipment and the ‘Track as Asset’ box in AP checked for all purchases over £5,000 (including non-recoverable VAT).

12 Aug 2015: Each department has a suspense project and award with the format RG00000 (dept cost centre) for the award code and dept cost centre/000 for the project code. Eg. RG00000 (EWAG) EWAG/000 The suspense account is used for posting expenditures which

2 Apr 2015: When funds are released they will be credited to the specified department / cost centre / source of funds combination with a transaction code: LFDO "Donations transferred from Development Office" It will also include any interest that has been e

2 Apr 2015: The Finance Division is responsible for the University's financial policies and accounting procedures: whereas, the Development and Alumni Relations (CUDAR) is responsible for the policy on the solicitation, acceptance and stewardship of

31 Mar 2015: Fixed or tangible assets are the physical structures that support the University and are therefore of significant value and are required to be accurately recorded and reported on within the University's financial statements.

31 Mar 2015: Where Departments are providing funding for land and buildings an internal invoice will not be raised. The recovery of funds will be by journal entry. This is true of both minor works and major projects. The process is as follows: 1.

2 Apr 2015: CUDAR's 'Procedures for Handling Donations' document explains the detailed University procedures for accepting donations. Departments should use these procedures before approaching any potential donors.

23 Jul 2015: A budget is the financial representation of a planning process, usually annual. It is finalised before the beginning of a financial year and actual income and expenditure are measured against it as a means of reviewing performance and controlling

4 Sep 2015: Transaction codes are used to define the nature of an item in a consistent manner across all departments. As well as income and expenditure transactions, they describe any brought forward balances and items that are recorded on the University’s

10 Aug 2015: Module closes at 5pm on Wednesday 7 August Essential Tasks Final date for completion Physical stock take (all institutions with stores) Wed 31 Jul Update Inventory balances with the results of stock take Wed 7 Aug Process all receipts and issues

7 Apr 2015: Transfers of donated funds to other institutions must always be approved by the Head of Department and be in accordance with the terms of the gift and the University's general charitable purposes.

5 Aug 2015: Before completing a new supplier request, ensure that the supplier is not already on the Supplier database by using the search function.

1 Apr 2015: Often departmental activities will be funded from a variety of sources that may include income for a trust fund.

23 Jul 2015: Unlike most ‘for-profit’ organisations, funds allocated but unspent at the end of a financial year may in some cases (subject to rules) be carried forward in reserves for use in subsequent years. This allows institutions and Schools the

1 Apr 2015: Many departments have surpluses that are held on deposit with the University Deposit Account. Departments are responsible for monitoring account and deposit balances and can process deposit movements themselves through a General Ledger journal.

2 Apr 2015: Since 1 August 2003, overheads, calculated as a percentage of salary costs, have been charged on donation accounts and special funds. The policy aims to ensure that a contribution is made towards the infrastructure costs of activities funded from

2 Apr 2015: A specific endowment is a donation where the donor has specified that the funds are to be invested and the investment income is to be used for specific purposes, which may be as wide as a department or academic area. The funds may be required to be

31 Mar 2015: Ensure that the "Track as Asset" box in the AP module is ticked for all fixed assets purchases in excess of £5,000. This is essential. Notify the Fixed Asset Helpdesk of any assets not tracked. Notify the Fixed Assets Helpdesk of any fixed asse

23 Jul 2015: In general Chest budgets are set at the beginning of the financial year. It is the responsibility of the School Business Partners and institution heads of finance to organise the upload of institutional budgets, as detailed in the Blue Book, into UFS

2 Apr 2015: The University will seek to avoid the situation where it becomes committed to expenditure for which it has insufficient funds. Accordingly, the terms of any specific donations and endowments must be carefully considered before a gift is accepted.

20 Mar 2015: The prime reason why the University sets budgets is to ensure that it is operating sustainably.

1 Apr 2015: An appropriation in aid is a transfer of income from a trust fund to a departmental account, and is therefore a saving to the University Chest. These appropriations come under the following main categories.

31 Mar 2015: Monthly 'Mass Additions' process The main central process revolves around creating 'mass additions' - this sweeps all invoice data re ticked 'track as asset' items into a holding area called mass additions within the fixed asset module.

12 Aug 2015: Each research award will be activated within the UFS Grants module and given a unique award number, prefaced by RG or G. This will then be linked to a unique project number. It is helpful to quote the award RG/G number or project number in all

12 Aug 2015: Initial source of support Your initial source of support should be your Finance Analyst - Research and Grants in the Research Operations Office. Each Department has a dedicated Finance Analyst - Research and Grants.

23 Jul 2015: The table below details those activities and sources of funds for which budgets are not created in UFS, unless your Finance Business Partner/Institution Finance Manager tells you otherwise. These activities are monitored by comparing Actual

7 Apr 2015: Departments are required to create internal sales transactions when trading with other internal departments. Upon receipt of a request or a purchase order, the selling department must raise a UFS invoice using the correct internal trading data.

2 Apr 2015: A General Donation is one in respect of which the donor has either: not placed any restrictions; or has placed restrictions which are met by expenditure already committed or planned as part of the department's existing operations.

2 Apr 2015: The CUDAR will notify the department for which the donation is intended (via email), passing on the following information: name of the donor amount of donation (including gift aid where appropriate) purpose of the donation CUDAR will ask the

31 Mar 2015: Both the University’s internal and external auditors have access to all records, assets, personnel and premises and the right to obtain such explanations as they consider necessary.